Our weaving center in Sanchor, Rajasthan is approximately 135 km from the Barmer railway station.
The center currently employs 15 men, and is managed by Swaruparam ji, a first-generation weaver who was forced to start working in his late teens when his father took ill. He was trained at The Handloom School, Maheshwar. There are 12 looms in the center.
What is weaving? Weaving refers to the craft of forming fabric by interlacing two distinct yarns: the warp & the weft. Here is how it’s done:
Step 1: Large spools of thread arrive from Bikaner. Bobbins are threaded to prepare for the warping process. Earlier, a charkha was being used to do this. It was a time-consuming process and would take almost an entire day to thread 50 bobbins. Three months ago, a machine arrived that makes the process much faster: 20 bobbins can be threaded in 2-3 minutes.
Machine for threading bobbins
Step 2 (Tana/ Warping): The bobbins are placed on a creel and individual ends are drawn and laid in a parallel fashion. Approximately 2,180 parallel yarns are rolled onto the beam.
Warping
